


of cowardice

by ignitesthestars



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Dark Side Finn, M/M, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-07-29 21:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7699198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ignitesthestars/pseuds/ignitesthestars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn is not like his Knights of Ren.</p><p>Kylo Ren still isn’t sure why he didn’t induct the other man into his Knights, wrap him in a mask and bring him to heel. Another faceless follower, bent to his will and his power.</p><p>Perhaps because he’s something new. Perhaps because Kylo Ren can look at him, and not Luke Skywalker staring back. Perhaps there is more Light in this one man than all the others combined, those Knights who were once drenched in it, and there is a part of him that still hasn’t decided if he wants to snuff it out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	of cowardice

Finn is not like his Knights of Ren.

Kylo Ren still isn’t sure why he didn’t induct the other man into his Knights, wrap him in a mask and bring him to heel. Another faceless follower, bent to his will and his power.

Perhaps because he’s something new. Perhaps because Kylo Ren can look at him, and not Luke Skywalker staring back. Perhaps there is more Light in this one man than all the others combined, those Knights who were once drenched in it, and there is a part of him that still hasn’t decided if he wants to snuff it out.

Power comes from that struggle, the tension between Light and Dark, the kinetic energy that builds when something is stretched to its breaking point. The others are broken. Finn–

“Hey, so, how long does it take to get where we’re going, again?”

Finn could be something else entirely. Right now, he’s an irritation. Kylo Ren turns his head slowly, staring at him from behind his mask. The intimidation factor had been one of his most useful tools at the beginning, but Finn just grins at him now, a slow, lazy curl of his mouth.

He thinks of his own training at Snoke’s hands, and knows he should do better. Needs to do better.

“If you didn’t want me asking so many questions, you should have given me more information,” Finn points out. “Don’t blame me for your crappy attitude.”

“Has anyone ever told you,” Ren draws the words out, “that you’re lucky to have survived Phasma’s training?”

Something flashes behind the other man’s eyes, his easy slouch across two seats abruptly taking on an edge of danger. Gloved fingers drum on the back of a chair, frenetic. “Luck,” Finn says shortly, “had nothing to do with it.”

“You’re right.” Ren leans forward, elbows resting on his knees, chin on his hands. A smile stretches his own mouth as he probes this wound, testing the ragged edges. “That was cowardice, wasn’t it? So much power. So little will to use it.”

At the beginning of his training, this had provoked outbursts. More than one fight, Finn throwing punches, Ren easily avoiding them until he grew tired of the dance and put him down. But there was a tenacity in the younger man, a will to be something greater. To become.

Now, he stays where he is. Even the grin remains, but there are teeth in it now, a rawness shivering in the air between them.

“You want to talk cowardice? Say it to my face like a real man, then. I’m not the one afraid of letting the galaxy see who I really am.”

Childish taunts, but the words needle at him anyway, hook into his skin and drag. His lips part to retort and that - that is why he wears the mask. Because he cannot trust his own impulses. Because the tension that he seeks to draw out in Finn pulls tight in his gut as well, and the fact that Finn _knows_ –

He doesn’t know what to do with that.

“We touch down in Jakku in four hours,” Ren says flatly. “Prepare yourself. The man we are about to deal with is uniquely irritating.”

“Maybe I’ll get along with him, then.”

Finn’s chuckle lingers in his ears long after the other man has retired to meditate.


End file.
